The House - A Journey
It has been interesting to see this house-switching scheme unfold.
4-5. Elizabeth says she is moving out because Mike and Deanna haven’t decided what to do.
4-6. April talks to Elly who says she doubts Mike and Deanna will buy the Stibbs’ house, but they are going to look at it anyway, to see the interiour.
4-7. John and Deanna convince Mike to buy despite the fact it’s almost as bad as getting married.
4-8. Sunday
4-9. John approaches George Stibbs.
4-10. George has a price ready for his place. Neither he nor John plan to remarry.
4-11. The big 4 arrive. Mike says 2 bedrooms. Elly says small. John says add on. Mike says he could buy his dad’s place for the money it would cost to buy the Stibbs’ place as an example of how he could find a place which didn’t need an add-on. This makes it seem like it’s Mike and Elly’s idea, and John’s idea of an add-on has been ignored.
4-12. George Stibbs’ talks up the idea of selling his place to John and Elly. Elly says John has already made up his mind, and George Stibbs’ wink tell us that this whole thing has been concocted by him and John.
4-13. Elly’s protests are ignored by John and Mike. Then April interrupts.
4-14. John says April can live with them. Mike says April can live with them. Deanna speaks for the first time and really sells it to April. This tells us that she is onboard with the idea of the house switch.
4-15. Sunday
4-16. John rationalizes moving to the Stibbs’ house, with a rationale which does not hold up under inspection. April suspects it is a done deal. So do I. I predict April moves in with Mike and Deanna, based solely on Deanna’s enthusiastic welcome and the fact that having her in the house makes her available for April’s narrating “Little Aypo” strips for the hybrid.
4-5. Elizabeth says she is moving out because Mike and Deanna haven’t decided what to do.
4-6. April talks to Elly who says she doubts Mike and Deanna will buy the Stibbs’ house, but they are going to look at it anyway, to see the interiour.
4-7. John and Deanna convince Mike to buy despite the fact it’s almost as bad as getting married.
4-8. Sunday
4-9. John approaches George Stibbs.
4-10. George has a price ready for his place. Neither he nor John plan to remarry.
4-11. The big 4 arrive. Mike says 2 bedrooms. Elly says small. John says add on. Mike says he could buy his dad’s place for the money it would cost to buy the Stibbs’ place as an example of how he could find a place which didn’t need an add-on. This makes it seem like it’s Mike and Elly’s idea, and John’s idea of an add-on has been ignored.
4-12. George Stibbs’ talks up the idea of selling his place to John and Elly. Elly says John has already made up his mind, and George Stibbs’ wink tell us that this whole thing has been concocted by him and John.
4-13. Elly’s protests are ignored by John and Mike. Then April interrupts.
4-14. John says April can live with them. Mike says April can live with them. Deanna speaks for the first time and really sells it to April. This tells us that she is onboard with the idea of the house switch.
4-15. Sunday
4-16. John rationalizes moving to the Stibbs’ house, with a rationale which does not hold up under inspection. April suspects it is a done deal. So do I. I predict April moves in with Mike and Deanna, based solely on Deanna’s enthusiastic welcome and the fact that having her in the house makes her available for April’s narrating “Little Aypo” strips for the hybrid.
posted by howard at 11:09 PM
10 Comments:
I predict April moves in with Mike and Deanna, based solely on Deanna’s enthusiastic welcome and the fact that having her in the house makes her available for April’s narrating “Little Aypo” strips for the hybrid.
Yes--and also given the fact that John said, "What if your mother and I moved to a smaller place down the street." It sounds as though, in his mind, he's already left Apes behind.
It did sound that way, however, when he talked about Michael and Deanna, he didn't mention the grandchildren. Elizabeth didn't get mentioned either. Only procreators count to John Patterson. Both Mike and John extended a lukewarm invitation to April. Deanna's invitation put it over for me. She's the only one who wants April, even if it just to be the live-in babysitter.
Deanna is ready not to be a parent just as much as John is. Remember the strip where Mike comes home after quitting his job, is greeted by Deanna and who shows up taking care of the kids? April. So, even when Deanna was home, April was picking up child-care duties. And to be frank, Deanna has always had that desire, from the very first time she went racing away when Lovey offered to take her child. I will very surprised if April ends up with Elly and John.
Howtheduck--about the whole Kool-Aid thing: I really did want to find a way to confine this to Corbeil and not have April permanently altered/gradually transformed (hence the anti-dote, etc.)
As you wish. I thought the idea that April would attack Jeremy on sight and tweak his ear was funny, and the prospect of ARB April dealing with the long-term aspects of and recovery from what happened to her in Corbeil could be fodder for many snarky stories, considering the terrific blog entries you have had on the matter for the last 2 days.
However, if you are not interested in such things, confined to Corbeil it will be. I will mention the incidents there no further and consider April to be completely unaltered and unchanged by the experience.
My concern is that there wouldn't be space for a recovery. My impression was that I was going to be pushed into an "April becomes exactly as she is meant to be in the strip" transformation. If you had something more flexible in mind, sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusions!
April becomes exactly as she is meant to be in the strip!?
I am not sure where you got this idea. I don't envision Lynn Johnston ever in her wildest dreams would have April jumping on Jeremy Jones and tweaking his ear, and yelling something like "Convert to good!!" each time she saw him, even if she were doing the strip for another decade.
More flexible would be the correct interpretation. I couldn't imagine doing that joke for very long before it got old; unlike the Jeremy Jones looks 40-years-old joke, of which I have still not tired.
I wasn't thinking so much of the ear tweaking as the assertion that April has been eating small amounts of the Kool Aid for years and that this Kool Aid was causing metabolic changes that caused her to do such things as pun and bun.
It seemed to me that if this were true, she'd have to be on the path to embracing her inner Patterson and eventually thinking Elly can do no wrong and Mike is the bestest author evah--getting fitted for her potato nose and wide butt along the way.
You know, the stuff of nightmares. ;)
It seemed to me that if this were true, she'd have to be on the path to embracing her inner Patterson and eventually thinking Elly can do no wrong and Mike is the bestest author evah--getting fitted for her potato nose and wide butt along the way.
I guess this could be the stuff of nightmares. Or it could be the stuff of snark-mares. Some ways to deal with it could have been:
a. April realizes what’s going on and snarks the strip as she combats those Kool Aid-related inclinations, ultimately saving herself by creatively destroying or sabotaging her mother’s supply of Kool-Aid.
b. April embraces the changes, and takes them to such extreme snark-laden heights, that even Elly and Mike are appalled and reverse themselves.
c. April realizes that her mother believes her behaviour is influenced by the Kool-Aid, when in fact nothing has happened to her, and uses this knowledge to take advantage of her mother.
d. April actually physically changes to the potato nose and wide butt, and gets to explore her relationship with Gerald and his mother’s ultra-thin ways, and exasperates her mother by continually taking the last muffin. Liz and Deanna stage a big-lipped, pretty girl intervention.
Like any of the stories I try to hand off to other people on April's Real Blog to see if they want to play with them, it is really up to them what they want to do with it, if anything. Your preference is obviously for an unchanged and unaltered April, and that's OK.
Are the Pattersons turning into a dysfunctional family? John’s desire to move to a smaller house while he still has two daughters living at home is completely beyond my comprehension. April is just a kid, so she won’t be ready to be on her own for 5 to 10 years. It’s ridiculous that LJ would even suggest that April live with her brother’s family.
Michael and family are just starting out, so a 2-bedroom house should be adequate for now. I suggest John buy the house (I’m sure his mortgage is paid, so he can afford it!) and rent it to Michael for the same rent that Mrs. Saltzman charged them. Since the property will be his, he’ll have tons of space to play and display his trains!
Are the Pattersons turning into a dysfunctional family?
The Pattersons have been dysfunctional for awhile, due in a large part to Elly’s screaming as a form of parenting, but it is becoming more and more obvious in the more recent strips.
It’s ridiculous that LJ would even suggest that April live with her brother’s family.
Absolutely. The problem is that LJ wants to set up this hybrid strip in September, where Michael and his family are in the old house, and they introduce reprinted strips from the early years from that location. In order to put that in place, she has launched on this ridiculous storyline about house-switching without thinking through any of the ramifications of it.
Michael and family are just starting out, so a 2-bedroom house should be adequate for now. I suggest John buy the house (I’m sure his mortgage is paid, so he can afford it!) and rent it to Michael for the same rent that Mrs. Saltzman charged them. Since the property will be his, he’ll have tons of space to play and display his trains!
I agree. However, there are a host of other reasons why Michael and his family should not even rent the house. The main one is that John and Elly live in an old neighbourhood, and there are no children Merrie and Robin’s age for playmates. Michael and Deanna would be a lot smarter to look in a younger neighbourhood with less expensive houses.
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